Bottle-sealing cap or closure.



PATENTED JUNE 13, 1905.

W. PAINTER.

BOTTLE SEALING GAP 0R CLOSURE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 29, 1902.

Invention- UNITED STATES Patented June 13,1905.

PATENT ()FFICE.

IVILLIAM PAINTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE CROWVN CORK AND SEAL COMPANY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, A CORPORATION OF MARYLAND.

BOTTLE-SEALING CAP OR CLOSURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,285, dated June 13, 1905.

Application filed September 29, 1902. Serial No. 125,180.

To all whom it Wtay concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM PAINTER, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Sealing Caps or Closures, as well as a Novel Method or Process of Producing the Same; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnished and forming a part of the same, is a clear, true, and complete description of the several features of my invention.

In my application for Letters Patent, filed June 6, 1902, Serial No. 110,535, I have described and claimed a certain novel method or process in this art, to the claims of which my present invention is deemed subordinate, this application embracing features of invention and claims thereto which might not have been appropriate to that application.

The sealing-caps embodying certain features of this invention and as produced by the method described have special novel points of value, and they are readily distinguishable from any sealing-caps known to me prior to the date of my invention. These sealing-caps, however varied in shape or form, are in part composed of hard sheet metal (such as tinplate) and in part of sliced cork,(serving as the sealing medium,) and are to that extent and in their appropriate organization with suitable bottles quite fully disclosed in the several well-known Letters Patent heretofore issued to me.

In the production of the metallic portion of the present sealing-caps the first step in my present method is to apply a suitable fusible protecting and adhesive medium to the surface of the tin-plate, from which the caps are to be cut and formed, (in a manner well known,) so that the entire interior metallic surface of the cap is amply coated. This coating of the inner surface of the cap-flange serves specially-important purposes,viz., in serving as an interposed adhesive layer between the flange and the glass surface, against which it is compressed when applied to a bottle, and, further, in protecting the interior surface of the flange against corrosion liable from moisture and exposure prior to use and also during use such portions thereof as may not have been forced into close contact with the glass. As a coordinate step in connection with the sliced-cork sealing-disks these are soaked in hot water for sterilizing the cork and extracting the tannin therein and then dried. Then said disks are further sterilized and charged with paraflin under such temperature as will not only hold the normally hard parafiin in such condition. of fluidity that it will freely permeate the cork, but also perfect sterilization. Then the so-paraffined cork is immersed in a hot solution of glycerin and Water, which removes surplusage of adhering paraflin and so permeates the cork that the latter on being practically dried will by the glycerin and paraflin be maintained in a soft, strong, and durably-flexible condition and so that the disks will need no wetting prior to application to bottle-sealing duty, which is a very important feature. With some corks the water of the solution may be wholly depended upon for extracting the tannin. The next step in my present method or process is to' subject the metal cap and said cork disk, duly placed therein, to such a temperature as will melt or fuse the protecting and adhesive medium on the interior metallic surface and in the meantime apply such pressure as will compress the disk and force it into close relations with or to the cap and maintain such compression thereafter for assuring reliable and close union of the metal and cork and until the adhesive medium has properly cooled, and so, also, until the compressed disk, with its contained paraflin,has become substantially fixed or set in its compressed condition for service. By this permanent condensation many of the air-spaces in the cork are wholly closed, the paraflin and glycerin serving to seal them against being further filled by air.

In some cases it is desirable to employ between the cork and metal an extra protecting medium, in which case I use a thin circular paper collet so charged with an adhesive medium as to enable it, the cork, and the metal to be firmly united during the application of pressure and heat.

Although many well-known varnish-gums may be employed as the interior coating, 1 know of none more desirable than shellac in grain-alcohol solution of consistency common to varnishes.

The mechanical means for compressing the combined caps and disks may be widely varied, as well as the appliances for heating during compression, and the cooling operation may be gradual or rapid, according to the character of the cooling influences employed, all as fully set forth in my said prior application.

For a further description, if need be, reference may be had to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is an edge view of a cap embodying my present invention, a portion of the cap-flange being cut away for showing the interior surface and the cork disk. Fig. 2 illustrates two pieces of tin-plate appropriately supplied with the protecting adhesive coating. In one instance the entire surface and in the other said medium is applied in circular spots of appropriate diameter. Fig. 3 in side view with sectional views, Figs. 4 and 5, on lines (/1 and 1 respectively, illustrate one form of apparatus for compressing, heating, and cooling the caps and their disks, the same being substantially as shown in my aforesaid prior application.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the cap A there shown has a portion of its flange a cut away, disclosing the permanently-condensed cork disk 6 and the interior coated surface 0 of the flange. This cap is also provided with a paper collet Z), interposed between the cork and the metal; but it is to be understood that my invention is not limited thereto, it being often desirable to employ only the cork. The paper, as a rule, however, will at least be specially desirable with cork of very low grade or quality. The paper collet is, as heretofore indicated, charged with an adhesive medium and is solidly united to the cork and metal during the application of heat and pressure.

The tin plates B and B of Fig. 2 have respectively an entire coated surface 0 and the spotted surface 0 either being suitable in the production of caps having their inner surfaces wholly coated with the adhesive fusible protecting medium. The spotting of the tinplate in appropriate areas with the fusible medium is an important feature, involving substantial economy in avoidance of serious waste of a comparatively expensive material, and this feature has been made the subject of a divisional application. (See Serial N 0. 255,773, filed April 15, 1905.)

Referring now to Figs. 3, 4:, and 5, it is to be understood that two foot-rails C and C constitute a horizontal raceway, they being so separated as to properly support an inverted cap A in a position favorable to the application of pressure to the cork disk and heat to the then under side (top) of the cap. A suitable head-plate D overlies the raceway and is grooved, as at (Z, on its under side centrally, longitudinally, and in line with the middle of the space between the rails. The entrance end d of the head-plate is inclined slightly upwardly; but the main portion is parallel with the rails. The groove (Z is concave laterally from one end of the head-plate to the other. At and below the straight portion of the raceway there are smokeless gasburners E, suitably controlled by cocks e. If the hardening, setting, or fixing of the cork disks and adhesive medium is to be promptly executed, then the series of air-jet pipes f, supplied with compressed air from a receiver, (not shown,) will afford efficient artificial cooling influences which will promptly perform the duty, the air being controllable by means of the cock f. With the raceway as thus described a set or series of press-blocks F are employed, each having a globular head g, which on its top conforms in outline with the under surface or groove (Z of the head-plate D. The base of each block F is circular and of such a size as to properly occupy a cap and bear properly upon the surface of a cork disk. The height of the blocks is such that when placed on a cork in acap the whole will freely enter the raceway; but on being advanced (as by hand or otherwise) along the gradually vertically contracted raceway the blocks will more and more compress the cork disks, so that by the time they enter the straight portion of the raceway the cork will be under proper compression, that being maintained throughout its course. As soon as the caps are exposed to the heat at the burners the fusible medium is promptly softened, the paraflin and glycerin in the cork is also heated, air-cells in the cork are not only closed by pressure, but the air further expelled by heat, and all this is done under quite heavy pressure until in due time the caps reach the expanding coldair blasts from the jet-pipes, if artificial cooling be employed; but if not then the raceway should be so lengthened as to afford ample time (or a long passage) for cooling before the caps are discharged at the enlarged exit end of the raceway. It will of course be understood that the apparatus or means employed constitute no portion of my present invention, it being deemed necessary for the purposes of this specification to illustrate the same in as simple a manner as possible.

The complete caps produced in accordance with my present invention constitute a valuable novelty in the art of bottling liquids, and they are readily distinguishable as follows: Regardless of the form or style of the metal portion its flange has an interior protectingcoating. The pressed sliced-cork disk has its contained parafiin and glycerin readily observable under contact of its surface with ones fingers as well as by cutting into the disk for revealing its compressed, fixed, or permanently-condensed condition, and still further in the fact that the sliced-cork disks are inseparable as disks from the caps and as a rule can only be cleared in small fragments.

The complete sealing-caps herein described as the product of my present invention are not only specially effective for securing good results in sealing against escape of gaseous matter under the highest pressures involved in bottling; but the practically inseparable union of the cork and metal and the perma nent condensation of the cork upon its contained paraffin render it impossible for bottled liquids to be tainted through a permeation of the cork disk and contact with the interior surface of the cap.

In view of the fact that mineral wax (ozocerite) is closely allied to parafiin I deem it a fair, although not full, equivalent of paraflin. As to the glycerin, I know of no material which could. well take its place, on account of its non-liability to sour and induce ferment.

Inasmuch as poor substitutes might be employed by imitators, I deem it important to assert my right to an appropriate combination, including the permanently-condensed and inseparable cork disks.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The method or process of producing metallic bottle-sealing caps or closures, which consists in providing the metallic portion of the cap with a complete interior coating of a suitable fusible protecting adhesive medium; combining with said metal portion of the cap, a sliced-cork disk charged as described with paraffin and glycerin; permanently condensing said disk and securing a practically inseparable union thereof with the metal, by heating the cap, disk, fusible medium, paraffin and glycerin under pressure, and maintaining such pressure until the cap and its contents have been properly cooled, substantially as described.

2. A metallic sealing-cap having its interior surface wholly coated with a suitable adhesive protecting medium, and containing a slicedcork sealing-disk,practically inseparably con- .nected to the metal, substantially as described.

3. A metallic sealing-cap having its interior surface wholly coated with a suitable adhesive protecting medium, and containing a permanent] y condensed sliced cork disk charged with paraflin and glycerin, said disk and cap being practically inseparably united, substan-,

condensed sliced-cork disk, the cap, disk and collet being practically inseparably united, substantially as described.

WILLIAM PAINTER.

Witnesses:

GWYNNE E. PAINTER, GEO. E. TAYLOR. 

